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Attention! Translation was done using AI, mistakes are possible
In September, Rosgvardia personnel and members of other security forces from Chechnya were sent to fight in Ukraine. They even sent patrol officers. Rank-and-file Kadyrovites (informal term for Chechen security force members — SP) didn’t particularly want to go and fight. They started looking for new recruits — there weren’t enough not just for the battalions, but even for the regular local security forces.
When Ukraine’s counteroffensive began and coffins with security personnel started arriving in Chechnya, the mothers and wives of Kadyrovites panicked. They began writing appeals to Kadyrov, asking that their husbands and sons not be sent to Ukraine. It’s hard to say how many people were killed — the authorities conceal the numbers — but for Chechnya it’s a large figure, and many Kadyrovites were also taken prisoner.
The mothers' appeals were ignored, and in mid-September there was a large deployment [to the front]. When they were being seen off, relatives — mothers, wives, sisters — openly cursed Kadyrov, shouting and crying.
Rank-and-file Kadyrovites are thrown into the slaughter there, while commanders close to Kadyrov are kept in the rear. Those who don’t want [to go] are given this “choice”: either you go to Ukraine and come home in 2 to 3 weeks with payments, or we’ll torture you in the basements.
After the first deployments, Kadyrov started talking about “self-mobilization.” That’s when ordinary residents became alarmed — ordinary Chechen women who feared that their sons, children, and brothers would also be sent to Ukraine. Spontaneous discussions of protests broke out, panic spread. Women started writing in their parent and mothers' group chats on WhatsApp and Instagram that they needed to take to the streets, that they were against the mobilization, against the war, that they’d suffered enough.
Against this backdrop, Kadyrov posts videos of his residence, of his children vacationing in Dubai, of a concert being planned in Grozny. Imagine: your sons are being sent to the slaughter, while Kadyrov is relaxing at his residence.
And the women went out to the square near the central mosque in Grozny. The rally was planned for 10 a.m. [on September 21]. By that time, the entire square had been cordoned off. Women who showed up early were immediately seized, shoved into buses, and driven away. Some were just sitting on benches near the mosque — they were taken too.
I think that for Chechnya, this is the largest protest in recent times. Nearly everyone was taken to the Grozny mayor’s office, where the women were interrogated personally by the chairman of parliament, Magomed Daudov. Elderly women fell ill. Many were held until nighttime. Some were released and then taken again. Some were led away for separate interrogations, screamed at with obscenities, threatened.
Kadyrov said these women were paid by the West. They brought the brothers, sons, and husbands of these women to the mayor’s office. Forced them to sign documents saying they’d go to Ukraine as volunteers. Blackmailed them — saying that if they didn’t enlist as volunteers, the women wouldn’t be released. The next day they were taken to a military training ground in Gudermes for exercises; some were sent to prisons.
[At the same time, ] I’m certain they won’t carry out a full-scale mobilization in Chechnya. It’s not in the government’s interest. Imagine: an ordinary person, long dissatisfied with Kadyrov, with all the torture in Chechnya — is trained, given a weapon, fully equipped. This person won’t go to Ukraine — he’ll start fighting right where he is.
Give weapons to people who are against this occupation-style Kadyrov regime, and they’ll be only too happy. People constantly write to me: “We have no weapons right now, no means — let Kadyrov actually declare a mobilization.” And the Kremlin knows this.
The Kremlin won’t make the same mistake it made in the Soviet era. Dzhokhar Dudayev himself (the first president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria — SP), Aslan Maskhadov (former president of Ichkeria, who in the early 1990s led the military operations of the Ichkerian Armed Forces against federal troops — SP) were precisely military men — generals, colonels of the Soviet army.
In the spring, the first batch of Kadyrovite volunteers was sent to Ukraine. And then the deputy interior minister ordered his personnel to monitor these volunteers — in case they brought weapons back with them.
Right now, they might send the protesting women’s men to fight simply as punishment. But from our experience, they won’t actually be taken anywhere. Arm that many of your own enemies yourself? No, of course not. They’ll be tortured in basements or sent to do manual labor.
Russian media at the start of the full-scale war presented it as if Chechnya had practically attacked Ukraine. On the contrary, many Chechens are fighting in various units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Ukraine’s side. The Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion recently took part in the liberation of Izium.
Since February 24, almost nothing has changed for the ordinary population of Chechnya: the same kidnappings, the same poverty. [If anything, ] it’s gotten a little easier, because coffins with Kadyrovites are arriving. Many people in Chechnya are glad, because among the Kadyrovites returned in coffins are people who tortured the relatives of ordinary citizens. We only rejoice that they’re suffering defeats.
But for the Kadyrovites, for their families, a lot has changed — especially after Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Kadyrov has started losing approval even among his own security forces.
Kadyrov most likely won’t dare to seriously harm the women. Because among them are many mothers of Kadyrovites currently fighting in Ukraine. Kadyrov won’t wage war against the wives of his own personnel — he’s barely managing as it is, and he can’t fight on two fronts (internal and external — SP).
The Chechen people don’t regard Kadyrovites as Chechens at all. We see them as traitors, criminals, Putin’s foot soldiers.
Our people have been fighting occupation for 300 years. The Russian Empire occupied us — we fought. The Communists came, they deported us. We started fighting again, deoccupied our state, declared Ichkeria, went to war. The Russian Federation came, occupied us again. For us, traitors like the Kadyrovites have existed in every era — we’re used to fighting them. We can’t regard them as Chechens; they’re not part of our people.
